Ziaja BB cream for oily and combination skin – yet another review

I think I must be the last beauty aficionada in my area to try Ziaja, the Polish brand that stormed beauty blogs and social media some years ago. Long story short, I bit and took home this Ziaja BB cream for oily and combination skin.

The shop I went to didn’t have testers available for this product, and given the price of 4.99€, I decided to just take both the “light” and “natural” tones (there’s a darker tone, making three in total in this line), concluding that in all likelihood, the right match for me was the lighter tone, and if that wasn’t the case, I had the second to fall back on.

My guesstimate turned out to be correct, since sunlight and open air aren’t really my thing and it shows, but I’m glad to have the darker tone on hand, which will be useful during the summer.

By the way, my skin subtone is yellowish, and both of these BB creams suit my tone well; I don’t know how they’d work out for rosier skin tones, but in any case, note that the coverage is quite subtle, so I think it’s possible it could be used on a variety of skin tones.

Getting down to business: what I liked

As I said, this BB cream’s coverage is rather light, even though the packaging says it covers redness and imperfections.

Not really, IMO: if coverage is what you’re after, I’d keep searching for other options. Even so, I find that this BB cream does even skin tone rather nicely and mattifies, though not to the point of leaving a matte mask finish: the product has a very light moistness to it, giving the skin a touch of “freshness”; personally I like how this looks.

The brand says that this BB cream is meant to give a radiant finish, and in my case, I find that it does: that, to me, it’s one of the main pros of this product (besides it’s low-low price), especially for combination 35+ y/o complexions like mine, which benefit from a dose of added light. If I need some extra help to cover up some pesky redness, I reach for a tiny bit of mineral concealer, and done.

Careful, though: only very little BB cream is needed. Be careful when squeezing the product out, or it’s likely you’ll get excess product out, since the texture is rather on the fluid side, and that’s the last thing you want; I’ll explain why in a moment.

Besides UVA and UVB filters, the packaging of this BB cream also lists among its active ingredients a lot of interesting things like oleanolic acid, hyaluronic acid, provitamin B5, vitamin B3 and provitamin B5, vitamins E and C… the truth is, these interesting ingredients and others like niacinamide and the odd plant extract are somewhere in the middle of the INCI list and below, behind other more prosaic ingredients, a good many of which are under question by the more hardcore devotees of “natural” cosmetics (which I am not).

What I didn’t like

I have the impression that if I use this BB cream for many days in a row, it kinda tends to clog my pores, and I get a small, just-under-the-surface bump here and there, even in areas where I don’t normally break out; I’ve concluded that the cause is this BB cream, which has a high proportion of silicone in its formula.

This isn’t a major issue for me, strange as this may sound: I don’t use this product every day, and what crops up, when it does, is very minor and unlikely to be perceived by someone who isn’t looking at my skin the way I tend to do, with my face inches away from the mirror; nevertheless, I wouldn’t recommend this BB cream to someone with acneic skin.

In truth, my main problem with this product is that, given it’s high content of silicone, it doesn’t work well with my sunscreen, which is a non-negotiable step in my routine. I’ve said this before in other posts, but annoying creature that I am, I’ll go and say it again: BB creams, foundations and such aren’t enough by themselves to provide halfway decent photoprotection.

So, if I accidentally oversqueeze the tube and end up applying even the slightest excess of BB cream, the product will accumulate, pill and roll in tiny specks across my skin. This is something I loathe, since the stupid specks are surprisingly difficult to brush away. Much as I enjoy lingering over my morning rituals, I just don’t have time or patience for fixing this issue.

Would I buy this Ziaja BB cream for oily and combination skin again?

Probably not. It’s not that I regret my purchase: I actually think this is a nice enough product in a pinch, or for using on certain occasions such as evening events (that way I can skip sunscreen, and it looks great), particularly given its modest price. I certainly intend to use up all the product before introducing a replacement.

Nevertheless, all things considered, I prefer to keep searching for other options that are more suitable for frequent day-time use… as usual, I’m open for recs and suggestions from fellow users with combo/oily skin like mine 😉

My rating for this product: 3,5 points. In general, I think the product’s nice enough, just not really for me.

1 point: No! Never again, not even if you gave it to me, or even paid me to wear it.

2 points: I didn’t finish the container and it’s very unlikely I’d buy this again. It might work for you, but it does nothing for me.

3 points: Meh. I’ll use up my jar/tube, but I don’t think I’d buy again. It might work for you, but it doesn’t do much for me.

4 points: I like it. It’s nice and does its job. I might buy this again, if I find nothing I like better.

5 points: I love it! It does its job very well, I find it a pleasure to use, and it’s earned its place in my beauty routine.

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